Monthly Archives: April 2015

Its a Long Way to Tipperary! This souvenir scarf belonged to Queanbeyan soldier Trooper H Cantle of the 12th Light Horse Regiment AIF. Enlisted 7th August 1915. Discharged 21st October 1919. He also served in the Second World War. Drop along to our Museum Open Day this Saturday 11-4 to see the original scarf in our WW1 exhibition, locals in authentic WW1 uniforms, hear a wonderful concert The Riderless Horse – Australian Songs from WW1 and see The ANZAC Reels a compilation of footage from The NFSA collection, there will be food and drink. Check out the rest of the Museum displays while you are there!

Have just been at the launch of the Queanbeyan Heritage Festival 2015. The theme this year is Conflict and Compassion, with lots of fabulous events in Queanbeyan. Our speaker tonight was Margaret Hadfield with a very moving talk about her journey as an artist, through her Dutch family history connections with the Australians who were killed in WW2 in the skies above and buried on the island where her family lived. She was given a painting of a warship which was done by her own father. This sparked an interest in the connection between art and the people involved in war. She is able to connect with her art the descendents and family of those who were involved and to produce beautiful and emotional artistic remembrances of the events and people involved..

In commemoration of the ANZAC Centenary we have a treat for you with the performance of The Riderless Horse – An Australian Impression of WW1 in Song by Chloe and Jason Roweth at the Museum on Saturday 18th April at 1pm. Entry is Free.

We were lucky enough to catch an engaging and lively performance from Chloe and Jason at the National Folk Festival held in Canberra over Easter. Jason was awarded the National Folk Festival Reciter of the Year Award.

Check out their fine singing of the Australian Folk Song Moreton Bay on this Youtube clip:

I have been working on packaging and photographing a collection comprising 35 78-rpm shellac discs, which will be featured on the 45 Pieces of Queanbeyan online exhibition along with a portable gramophone. The collection was donated by Muriel Hasler and played by a local family who were descendents of Blewitts of Lobb Hole. There is one cover proudly promoting: REG. LUNDIE, Federal Emporium, BUNGENDORE. “The Tall man with the Short Prices.” Photographing this record collection made me reflect on the progress of sound technology. As today we tend to store music in the cloud purchased virtually from Itunes, a single track or a whole set, and listen to it in a small portable device, a computer, tablet or phone.

This particular 78-rpm collection provides us a glimpse of music played and danced to in Queanbeyan during the 1920s. Tracks such as A Thousand Miles from Here, 1924 played by Carl Fenton’s Orchestra or Hi, Ho the Merrio, 1926 by Irving Aaronson, describes the musical zeitgeist of the 1920s, the first one with dark lyrics yet in a bright tune, and the second one describing a man being happy and in love. Whether this music was limited to private households I tend to think the fox trot was the hip-hop of its generation, loud, edgy and fashionable forward, after all it became popular and fashionable across the world after the first Great War. Most of the 78s in this collection were produced by Regal, Brunswick, Parlophone, Zonophone and Columbia records.

The 78s are 10 inches or 25 cms in diameter and double sided containing only two tracks. Each track lasts approximately 3 minutes 45 seconds. Advertising slogans as ‘Surface smooth as glass’ or ‘His Masters Voice’ or ‘Two Good Selections on Every Brunswick Record’ were catchy phrases companies used to advertise these. As a note of interest, all these 78s have a miniature royalty stamp glued on to the record’s label. This stamp reflects the royalties paid to the artists by the record companies.

Queanbeyan Museum is proud to present as part of the 2015 Queanbeyan Heritage Festival and as part of the ANZAC Centenary, a wonderful concert:

The Riderless Horse – An Australian Impression of World War 1in Song (60 min) concert)This material has the ring of truth for nobody knows better than those who were there …From the rousing songs of nationalistic fervour, to the soldiers’ brave faced morale boosters composed on the spot in the trenches and sung by many voices, to the ballads of those left behind to watch and wait – It’s the songs written by people of the time, those directly affected by being at war, that really tell the story and provide a rare insight into Australia at the time of the war to end all wars. Although these songs were never meant to tell the story of one soldier’s experience, this presentation has been arranged chronologically and gives a strong impression of continuity. The show also contains a potted folk history of Australia’s involvement in WW1.

Thanks to a grant from the ANZAC Centenary Local Grants Program.

Our Fabulous Performers are Chloe & Jason Roweth: Original, traditional and contemporary Australian bush and traditional styled music in dynamic and fresh arrangements featuring two vocals, guitar and mandolin. Chloe and Jason gain great pleasure from bringing almost forgotten songs back to the stage along with creating new material which is grounded strongly in the tradition of bush culture and music. Their latest CD “A Voice that was Still” was awarded the National Film and Sound Archive’s “Best Folk Recording 2009” at the National Folk Festival.

Reviews of Chloe & Jason Roweth:

“Jason and Chloë Roweth are dynamite on guitar, mandolin and voice”

Theresa West, Springwood Folk Club, Cornstalk

“…strikingly beautiful music…”
Liz Bastion, Prime Television News

“Chloe’s voice is one of the best on the folk circuit, strong and confident with a sense of connection to the material.”
Graham McDonald, Folk Australia Website

Venue: Queanbeyan Museum, 10 Farrer Pl, (Canberra Ave) Queanbeyan

Park: Behind the Printing Museum just next dooror the Visitors Centre across the road or parking areas off Lowe St.